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NISAR Satellite on Launch Pad as Final Checks Wrap Up Ahead of July 30 Liftoff

Once aloft, its dual L- and S-band radars will circle the globe every 12 days; data will be made freely available within two days to support climate science, agriculture, disaster management.

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Nasa-JPL went on to lead landmark missions — from Magellan’s radar mapping of Venus to the Cassini-Huygens mission that revealed Saturn and its moons in stunning detail, and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), which redefined how we map Earth from space. (ANI)
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Overview

  • The 2,392-kg NISAR observatory was secured atop a GSLV-F16 rocket at Sriharikota and cleared all systems for its July 30, 17:40 IST launch into a 743 km sun-synchronous orbit.
  • Developed over a decade, the mission marks the first Earth-observation satellite built in partnership by ISRO and NASA and the first GSLV launch into sun-synchronous orbit.
  • NISAR’s dual L-band and S-band radars use a 12-metre unfurlable mesh reflector to achieve high-resolution, wide-swath SweepSAR imaging of land and ice.
  • The satellite will scan global surfaces every 12 days regardless of weather or daylight, detecting ground deformation, ice dynamics, vegetation changes and more.
  • All NISAR data will be freely available within two days of acquisition with expedited delivery during emergencies to aid climate research, agriculture and disaster management.